Two days after former Avalanche forward Colin Wilson published a story in The Players’ Tribune about how his untreated obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) led to an NHL career that included drug-and-alcohol abuse, a friend sent me a link to a mini-documentary from TSN, dubbed “The Problem of Pain” in the NHL.
Shocking.
The month-old video supported everything Wilson wrote about, and quite frankly, it can make an old-school hockey guy like me reevaluate the sport’s universal stance on playing through pain — or masking pain — with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as Toradol.
Former Avalanche defenseman Kyle Quincey and Denver-based NHL agent Kurt Overhardt of KO Sports Inc. are two key sources in the TSN piece, and both say the league and its teams have a problem with how they treat players — whether they are injured or not. Quincey said he took team-provided Toradol injections or pills every day in the latter part of his 10-year NHL career, which included three seasons (2009-12) in Colorado, where he is now retired.
Toradol is used to treat short-term injuries, and experts say it should not be taken for more than five days.
“Religiously. Every day. There’s no way I could get through a season without that,” Quincey said of Toradol in the TSN piece. “If you took a Toradol, it would mask all the pain. It did not matter how banged up you were and it never messed with your head. So you could focus, play a game, but literally run through a wall and not feel it. How good I felt on that drug — I felt like Superman. I couldn’t get hurt.”
And now? Quincey suffers from anxiety and depression, and the way he used to prepare on gameday is how he prepares for every day. He turned 35 in August.
“My fear is that 40 and 50 might feel like 60 and 70 and the scariest part is the pain I don’t feel, which is my head … and the stuff that’s coming down the road that I don’t already know about yet,” Quincey said.
He added: “The longer you play in the league the more jaded you become and the more your eyes are open to the business side of it. You have to look out for yourself, your long-term health. There are times and places for Toradol. There’s times and places for inflams (inflammatories). But when the trainer or the doctor says this is what (you should take) just educate yourself. Just why? What is this going to do for me? What’s the downside?”
Quincey and Overhardt are proponents of second opinions, and although a young player might get punished for asking for one, his agent must help lead that charge.
“I spend a huge majority of the percentage of my time helping players get second opinions,” said Overhardt, who usually identifies the best doctor in that particular field and compares that to what the team doctor says.
Overhardt is the agent for Ryan Kesler, who hasn’t played in the NHL since March 2019 because of hip problems and Crohn’s Disease and colitis, the latter associated with the long-term use of Toradol.
“Players can lie about this, but every single player in that locker room is on a pain killer — anything that can help limit your pain and your discomfort and get you on the ice and play,” Kesler told TSN.
Quincey and his wife, Rachel, are building their dream home in Cherry Hills while raising their two young sons, Stone and Axl, the latter of whom is recovering from brain cancer treatment. Kyle is coaching hockey for the triple-A Colorado Thunderbirds and is a good resource for any family with a professional-bound player.
“You’re a prospect. Then you’re a project. Then you’re a suspect,” Quincey said. “You see the younger kids coming up to try to take your job. So you’re going to do what it takes.”
Drugs shouldn’t be an every-day option.
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Chambers: NHL should ban Toradol or limit consumption of the pain-masking drug - The Denver Post
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